Footsteps
by Kagetsuya
Summary: ficlet for 83 Day '05: the events of 3 years postJourney. Quasi blinkandmissit shounenai, quasiimpliedhet.


**Title:** Footsteps**  
Author:** Kagetsuya**  
Fandom:** Gensomaden Saiyuki**  
Rating:** G**  
Warnings:** quasi blink-and-miss-it shounen-ai, quasi-(implied)-het, author is a doofus**  
Notes:** 83 Day! (03 August 2005) So, um. Yes. For that. And because all my ficskills have dropped off the face of the Earth and I'm attempting to fish them back up. Um, and this was supposed to be longer, but I couldn't muddle out the rest. I blame the impromptu make-out sessions by the muses.

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Footsteps  
by Kagetsuya

_i._

He wasn't surprised to find Chou An the same as he'd left it. Same people, same trees, same gleaming white stone, with maybe an addition to the ranks here and a little renovation there. Still with that same implacable calm he'd never seemed to find until he'd left.

They greeted him with the reverence he preferred from laymen, for that was the sort that possessed a little more honest awe. Same sincerity, but this was business as usual.

When he finished his report to the Sanbutsushin, they asked if he had anything to add. He did.

"Next time," he said, with the respectful growl he'd perfected for speaking with his otherworldly superiors, "find yourselves another damn errand boy."

He found Goku lounging around under a tree in the courtyard. Probably fancying a climb for old times' sake.

Sanzo resisted the usual monkey reference, saying only, "Let's go."

The boy rocked on his heels with the prospect of it. "Where?"

"There's a new restaurant in town that opened while we were gone. Lotus-something-or-other."

Goku stared at him, gape-mouthed. He eyed the expression, snorted at its ridiculousness, and started walking.

"Not interested? Good. Let's get going, then."

There was a moment before footsteps began following him, coupled with the all-too-familiar whine.

"Sanzoooooo!"

ii.

It wasn't so much a village anymore as a town. New buildings, a multitude of unfamiliar faces. They knew the marketplace, a few of the vendors. Here, a restaurant they would frequent on occasion. There, a bar.

That was pretty much the sum of it.

"Hakkai."

"Hm?"

"Whose great idea was it to come here again?"

"Ah... Yours, I recall."

"That's what I thought." And then, eyes alighting on a petite, light-haired beauty chatting at a fruit stall, "_Damn_."

His companion chuckled, knowing exactly what he meant, and said, "I wonder if anyone's taken the house."

A pair of long-lashed eyes -- hazel, he decided, they had to be hazel -- glanced in his direction, caught him staring. She smiled at him, fleeting and shy -- she was hooked, he congratulated himself -- before returning to her own matters.

"You wanna go have a look?"

"No, that's all right." Gojyo could hear the smile in the faraway tone. "It's not home."

It was his turn to know what his friend was talking about. 'Home,' they'd dropped off about a week back.

"You wanna go, then?"

Hakkai turned. Followed his gaze. Gave a soft laugh.

"No, I think a few days' rest would do us some good."

iii.

The name of the town, when you sifted the purple and the flowers out of the translation, was named something like 'West.' It was just the place for them to end up. Odd, maybe. But a little ironic and a lot of perfect. Or maybe it was the other way around.

It was nothing special, really. Not unless you counted the school and the library, both housed in buildings that could almost rival the town hall. And one restaurant in particular, decorated with festive lights and lanterns on the outside. Wings spread, two dragons made of white marble -- which no doubt gave the place its name -- stood at the entrance.

A tug at his sleeve. "Sanzo--"

"Yes," he said, and that was enough.

The restaurant was popular, but they were seated with little delay. The waitress pegged them for the newcomers they were and rattled off the specials, the local favorites, the dishes popular with out-of-towners like them. Sanzo figured she hit most, if not all of the menu. Goku, of course, wanted one of everything. At _least_.

"Some things never change. I got them, Wei."

A hand plucked the order pad out of the girl's hands and she bowed before taking her leave. Then the owner of the hand pulled out a chair and plopped down, the movement shaking out blood-colored bangs from the loose ponytail.

"Kitchen's already fired up for you," he said, winking. "Any drinks tonight, gentlemen? You're legal now, ain't'cha, brat?"

Some things were universal. And despite the last few years, Goku still bristled.

A laugh, and a different voice repeating, "Some things never change. Shouldn't you be at the bar?"

"Siddown. And Jun's taking care of it." Gojyo added, "His protégé at the school, y'know. But _damn_ can she mix a drink.

"And shouldn't _you_ be in the kitchen?"

"Li Ming's the one who sent me out here."

Sanzo knew that airy tone right off the bat. He would have known it, even without that beatific smile that said, clear as day, 'Do not, under any circumstances, cross this man.'

Some things _never_ changed. But he was not about to say it aloud.

"His _wife_, you know," Hakkai said, as if confiding a secret-- and perhaps it was.

Goku coughed. Turned away with a snort. And then, because he was never one to be able to hold it in, exploded with laughter.

The redhead would have glared at him, but decided to favor the smirking Sanzo instead.

"It's quite the story, you know."

And that was Hakkai's placating voice, tinged with a little of his more teasing, 'Now, now, children.' one. And the look he shot at his friend was the innocent 'You started it.'

Surprising, really, how quick one fell back into familiarity. Surprising what hadn't faded away with time and memory and the expectancy that they would never see each other again.

Gojyo and Goku fought and goofed around like rowdy puppies. Sanzo threatened them on occasion, only half-serious (which meant that he brandished the fan, but never applied it). Hakkai watched, gentle and sedate, always ready to calm them down.

"It's a long story, too." Even against the backdrop of the Battle for the Summer Rolls, along with the rest of the restaurant's noise, Sanzo had no trouble hearing. "I'm sure you have one or two of your own."

He glanced at the man, but those green eyes were suddenly unreadable. He shrugged and said, "Not really."

"Oh? No more grand adventures for our houshi-sama?"

He snorted. "No."

"That's all right, then. I'd still like to hear anything you've got." Pause. And then, hesitant, "If you're just passing through, though. Sorry. I must have presumed..."

Sanzo waved him off. "You did." A pointed look when Hakkai began to say something. "But we have time."


End file.
